MMA Bill Passes Through Connecticut House of Representatives

The Connecticut House of Representatives on Tuesday passed a bill
to legalize mixed martial arts in the state.

Introduced in January by Sen. Andres Ayala and Rep. Charles D.
Clemons, House Bill No. 5277 passed in a landslide, garnering 117
votes of a possible 143. The bill will now head to the state
Senate.

“I want to thank the House members who supported this bill. It’s
the right thing to do for the thousands of Connecticut MMA and UFC
fans, for economic development in the state and for jobs,” Zuffa
CEO Lorenzo Fertitta stated in a UFC release. “We will now turn our
attention to the Senate and urge the leadership to permit the bill
to be voted upon. We are confident that if Senators are allowed to
vote on the bill, it will pass with strong bipartisan support.”

A similar bill (Bill 326) was introduced last year and ultimately
died when Senate President Donald Williams and Majority Leader
Martin Looney declined to move it forward for a vote. Should the
Senate pass this year’s bill, the document would then be sent to
Gov. Dannel Malloy, who would then either veto the bill or sign it
into law.

Connecticut, along with New York and Montana, remains one of the
few states in which mixed martial arts is still illegal. Though MMA
is legal in Alaska, the sport remains unregulated there. Despite
Connecticut’s ban on MMA, many fights have nevertheless been held
in the state at Native American casinos like Foxwoods and Mohegan
Sun.

“If MMA is legalized in Connecticut, it will mean jobs -- union
jobs -- and economic activity for people and communities where it
is desperately needed,” Sen. Ayala said in the release. “MMA is the
fastest growing sport in the nation. Fans in Connecticut watch it
on broadcast, cable and pay-per-view television. They travel to
other states and countries to watch it live. We should legalize it
here in Connecticut and attract fans from other states and
countries to our communities. I will work tirelessly for the
remainder of the session to try and convince the leadership of the
Senate that passing this bill to legalize and regulate MMA is the
right thing to do and [that] now is the time to do it.”